Events

David Payne has been named to the new position of senior vice president and general manager of CNN/Sports Illustrated Interactive,. Payne will oversee all business activity of CNN/Sports Illustrated Interactive, which includes the 24-hour sports Web site CNNSI.com. Payne is based in Atlanta and reports to Jim Walton, president of CNN/Sports Illustrated.

BBC Sport has won a new three-year deal for exclusive live broadcast rights to the US Masters from Augusta.

The German Football Federation (DFB) and top Bundesliga clubs are bidding to launch their own pay-TV channel for the live broadcast of matches, according to the soccer industry newsletter, The Soccer Investor Weekly Bulletin, based on a report in the Suddeutsche Zeitung.

German athletics officials have launched a bid to host the 2005 world athletics championships in Berlin even though the deadline for entries was January 31.

goalnetwork.com, the global online soccer network launched in November, has signed a deal to be the exclusive sponsor on 185 soccer matches broadcast on FOX Sports World and 175 soccer matches on FOX Sports World Espanol.

The Orlando Arena, home to the Orlando Magic (NBA), Orlando Miracle (WNBA), and Orlando Solar Bears (IHL), and other sporting and entertainment events, will become TD Waterhouse Centre. Under the naming rights agreement, the City of Orlando and RDV Sports will share revenues totaling $7.9 million over the five-year term of the agreement.

Prima Television International has been appointed exclusive international media rights representative for the Lincoln Financial Group Rugby League World Cup 2000.

The 2000 NBA All-Star Game, taking place in the San Francisco Bay Area, February 11- 13, will be shown in 205 countries, with a potential audience of 750million households.

CSS Stellar, the largest British owned event marketing group, have acquired the rights of the first ATP Tour Seniors event to be staged in Ireland.

The head of South Africa?s bid for soccer?s 2006 World Cup has refuted suggestions that events at the African Nations Cup in Nigeria will have a negative effect.

Official sponsor of this summer?s Sydney Olympic Games ? the airline Ansett ? has succeded in forcing the Sydney Organising Committee to not use a well-known song associated with its rival.

Open Links Internet Ltd, a London-based internet company, has agreed to provide, install and manage an Internet-based National Handicapping System for the Portuguese Golf Federation (PGF).

FIA president Max Mosley has threatened to reduce the number of Grand Prix events in Europe in the wake of the EU?s investigation into the FIA's control of television rights in the sport.

Greg Dyke, the new director-general of the BBC, is set to bring the BBC's sports operation under a single leader.

The chief executive officer of South Africa's bid committee for the 2006 Soccer World Cup has told the South African Cabinet that he is extremly confident the country will be awarded the event, the Pan African News Agency reports.

The International Automobile Federation has accused the European Union Commission of mismanaging its antitrust investigation and threatened to sue.